Homeschool and Etc.

07 December 2016

It's very noisy and very messy. Everything is off the walls. All the dishes are out of the cabinets. Everything is away from the windows while they are being replaced on the upper level of the house. In short, pretty much a bunch of stuff is in a pile in the middle of each room.

Nobody come over to visit for a while.

In this photo, you can see our new windows on the upper floor. Eventually these windows will be "wrapped," which means they won't look so shoddy around the edges as they do now. We'll also get some Hardie siding and then I'll do a proper post with before, during and after.

Meanwhile it's pretty noisy and cold when they remove windows during snowstorms. Apparently these people work year-round though!

06 December 2016

"Most of the time, people remain stuck in cycles of the same problems, like a hamster on a wheel, until they finally realize that the trouble is not with their bosses, their spouses, their bank accounts, their health, or their sons and daughters. The trouble is more personal than that; it's in their minds."

Van Moody's "I-Factor" book really unpacks this idea of mindful living through his book in a Christ-centered way. Not hokey. Practical. The premise of the book seems to be that for the most part, our happiness and success are determined by us and how we view ourselves and our circumstances.

His chapter on forgiveness is the best, though. I can't tell you how many stupid Christianese books and articles I've seen on forgiveness. This fellow is one of the few people who will outright tell you that forgiveness does NOT have to mean reconciliation and it certainly doesn't have to mean blowing off what happened or minimising what someone has done to you.

This book is for anyone going through a rough spot in life and is ready to consider some of the ideas Van Moody outlines for change. It's not a simple self-help book, but it gives ideas to think about and then come up with your own way of handling a given issue. Recommended!

28 November 2016

I used a standard plastic bag of brown sugar from the grocery, a standard can of pineapple slices and about 3/4 cup of honey. Half the sugar goes in first, then the ham in pieces. Next I put the honey over the top and pineapple round the sides and a bit on top. Last? Covered with the rest of the sugar and cooked on low for about four hours. I had four and a half pounds of ham, so perhaps your time might vary a bit. It's really quite good.

25 November 2016

Right now we're working on adding decimals in our fourth grade math program. My children understand this concept of tenths and hundredths because they've worked with small amounts of money, but if a number is written .3 rather than .30, they'll sometimes get confused. I'd been making up random numbers to pop into worksheets until I got an email alerting me to the dadsworksheets.com website. (Yes, it's free!) It didn't take much digging for me to find the decimal addition and subtraction worksheets already made up for me. Yay!

The only caveat I would pop in here is that "fourth grade math" can vary by curriculum, so I can't just pop onto the "fourth grade math" tab on the sidebar and get started that way. We aren't using any negative numbers whatsoever in fourth grade, but we're working with decimals, fractions and geometric problems extensively.

24 November 2016

By now you've seen the video of 200-odd people whipped up in some nutty frenzy, thinking that Donald Trump is gonna usher in some white Utopia for the "children of the sun" and all that. Even more wacky than seeing 200 actual Americans popping up a Nazi salute is noticing that not all of 'em are white.

I mean, not to be racist in thinking someone doesn't belong somewhere because of their race, but... I think non-white people reallllly don't belong at Nazi type rallies because of their race?

Not that I get to decide these things?

Ok, crazy world. Anyway, I'm hearing from some folks that non-white people are even being told to go back where they came from. Maybe it's a really small number of people but it only takes one to really sour you on how you feel about your place in the world if you're already feeling anxious.

Personally, I find the idea of having to go back where I came from absolutely horrific. That would mean moving to Cleveland!

Or if they mean "ethnically" where I came from I'd have to sprinkle about 35 percent of myself in Ireland and the rest all over Europe and some "less than one percent" will belong all the way over in Asia somewhere. It would be sort of messy.

22 November 2016

At least 46 people have died and perhaps the number is far higher. Fox4kc reports that the drug is hard to detect in an autopsy and just touching it can kill you.

What is this? Why have we not heard more about it in school flyers? Wouldn't something this deadly lead to weirdos spreading this on store shelves or something for kicks? Do we need to wash all our food when it comes into the house?

I hate stories like this that don't tell me exactly how much I should freak out.

21 November 2016

The three wise men arrive on segues and carry Amazon Prime boxes for baby Jesus. For only $129.99, you can have the entire set which also features a gluten-free fed, 100 % organic resin cow, selfie Mary and Joseph and a sweater-wearing sheep with his nerdy shepherd.

Welcome!

I'm Christine! I live near Kansas City, Missouri, and I like Polish pottery a little bit. This blog is mostly about our homeschooling adventures, family life and my assorted oddball opinions. I'd love it if you left a comment and said hello!